I’d like to
tell you a story about a friend of mine. We knew each other growing up, but we
did not become good friends until just the past few years. His name was Isa.
As a teen,
Isa was always made fun of. His mom and adopted dad are both Caucasian, but he
appears to be of middle-eastern descent. After 9/11, when he was a freshman in
college, rumors started that his mom had an affair with some terrorist leader
while his adopted dad was stationed in the Gulf and that he secretly was
carrying on his real father’s legacy. Knowing Isa and his parents, I doubt
there is any truth to that, but I want to give you a perspective of his
background.
After
graduating college in 2005, Isa was awarded a fellowship at a small seminary. At first he wanted to go into teaching,
but after coming against strong opposition for his liberal viewpoints, he
decided instead to be a missionary. He received his MDiv in 2008 and spent the
next three years as an international relief worker in the Middle East, working
especially with oppressed people groups. He didn’t care who the people were—if
they were in need, he helped them. Women, children, minorities, gays,
Islamists, even a few terrorists were impacted by Isa and made a better life
for themselves and their community as a result of his involvement. Many of them
turned their lives around and became Christians, not because of anything Isa
said, but rather because of how he showed them God’s love.
After
spending three years overseas, Isa returned to the US on furlough in 2012. His missionary
agency wouldn’t even give him the time to speak. Apparently they did not like
the type of people he helped and the fact that he did not denounce their
actions. Word had it in fact that Isa had on more than one occasion denounced
the actions of his supporting churches for using the Bible as a tool for
ostracizing others, especially when it came to Islamists and members of the gay
community.
On April 5,
2012 my friend Isa was arrested for conspiracy to commit treason against the
United States. The anonymous tip to Homeland Security later was revealed to
have come from one of the unhappy members within Isa’s home church. Isa was not trained as a spy and could
not handle the first 24 hours of torture. The next day Isa died of a heart
attack while in custody of Homeland Security. He was barely 30 years old.
My friend
Isa was a great man who truly acted as the hands of feet of God in this world.
He didn’t care about your race, religion, political affiliation, or sexual
orientation. All he cared about was that God use him to bless others in need so
that they might in turn be transformed back into ambassadors of God in this
world. Even though his church and his government opposed him, he by far is the
closest thing I have ever seen to the face of God in this world.
Perhaps by
now you realize this story is a work of my imagination. However, this should
not be confused with a work of fiction. The twenty-fist century story you read
above is very similar to what it would have looked like had Jesus lived today.
To a great extent, today’s Church rejects the teachings of Christ. If we are to
ever return to living a life of Biblical principles, we must forget the notion
that we are better than others and instead embrace the Biblical mandate to love
both our neighbors and the outsiders in our midst as ourselves (Leviticus
19:18, 34).
So I ask you
this: if Jesus walked into the doors of your church today, preaching the same
message he preached 2,000 years ago, would He be welcome? Would his message or
his ministry? If not, what can you do about it?
